Victim reporting and notification system and alert mechanism for organizations

ABSTRACT

A method and system for victim notification functions by receiving a report from an accuser regarding conduct of an accused that is believed to constitute harassment, bullying and/or discrimination, the reporting being composed of structured data. The severity of conduct in the report is scored and ranked and the pervasiveness of conduct in the report is scored and ranked by comparing the reported conduct against prior reports regarding the accused. Other reports by the accuser are also analyzed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of prior U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/180,988, filed Nov. 5, 2018, entitled “VICTIM REPORTING ANDNOTIFICATION SYSTEM AND ALERT MECHANISM FOR ORGANIZATIONS,” to whichpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 is claimed, and which claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Application Ser. Nos. 62/598,085, entitled “VICTIMREPORTING SYSTEM,” filed Dec. 13, 2017, 62/639,706, entitled “VICTIMREPORTING SYSTEM,” filed Mar. 7, 2018, 62/665,653, entitled “VICTIMREPORTING SYSTEM,” filed May 2, 2018.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a reporting system. More particularly,the present invention relates to a victim reporting and notificationsystem and alert mechanism for organizations providing a mechanismwhereby victims of harassment, discrimination, bullying or otherunwanted behaviors and/or inappropriate and/or unlawful conduct canreport them safely, privately and easily to their employers or to anyother organizations. The present invention provides employees andemployers with tools enabling them to eliminate harassment and/ordiscrimination from the workplace and to comply with their legalobligations. In addition, the reporting system enables the reporter tobe connected to counseling and representation to assist them in dealingwith the unlawful conduct.

2. Description of the Related Art

Unlawful sexual harassment, long a problem in the workplace, has becomethe most visible employment issue in corporate America. In 2016, morethan 13,000 administrative EEOC (Equal Employment OpportunityCommission) charges alleged sex-based harassment. 1 in 4 women will bethe victim of sexual harassment in the workplace. The EEOC alsoestimates that 75% of those who are victims of these hostile workenvironments do not report their harassment.

Ultimately, very few instances of harassment are reported. It isbelieved the limited reporting is a result of the fact that employeesdon't know who is to blame, employees worry about immediaterepercussions and consequences, PTSD (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”)and trauma, and employees do not necessarily know they are beingharassed. The bottom line is that reporting instances of harassment isnot easy for victims.

As such, an easy, safe, convenient, and un-shameful mechanism forreporting instances of harassment is needed.

Additionally, reporters of unlawful conduct need in certain cases to beconnected with counseling (psychologists, lawyers, etc.) andrepresentation to understand their rights and deal with such conduct.

Conversely, employers need to know right away when a report ofharassment and/or discrimination or other conducts or behaviors they donot want to see in their workforce has happened so that they can act,protect the victim, investigate and comply with their legal obligations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic of the present victim reporting and notificationsystem.

FIG. 1A is a schematic representation of the relational database tablesused in accordance with the victim reporting and notification system.

FIGS. 2-45 are screenshots showing operation of the reporting app of thevictim reporting and notification system.

FIGS. 46-49 are screenshots of the graphical user interface showingactivities of interest to employers using the victim reporting andnotification system.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The detailed embodiment of the present invention is disclosed herein. Itshould be understood, however, that the disclosed embodiment is merelyexemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms.Therefore, the details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted aslimiting, but merely as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art howto make and/or use the invention.

With reference to FIGS. 1 to 49 , and as will be explained below ingreater detail, a victim reporting and notification system 10 inaccordance with the present invention provides a mechanism whereby onecan safely, easily and anonymously (or not) report conduct that isbelieved to constitute harassment, bullying and/or discrimination. Asthe drawings accompanying the present disclosure show, the victimreporting and notification system 10 is operating under the name#NotMe™, and this term is used on various drawings. While the victimreporting and notification system 10 offers many tools applicable toworkplace harassment and/or discrimination as a mechanism for protectingemployees 12 who are the victims of workplace harassment and/ordiscrimination and assisting employers 14 in protecting their employees,it is fully appreciated harassment and/or discrimination occur in a widevariety of environments, for example, nursing homes, clubs andorganizations, homes, etc., and the victim reporting and notificationsystem 10 is equally applicable to these environments. The victimreporting and notification system 10 goes beyond the scope of employmentand can be used in other settings and environment for people to easilyreport through the #NotMe™ app other behaviors or instances they wouldlike to prevent from happening, avoid or see stop.

The victim reporting and notification system 10 also helps individualsand organizations tangentially affected by harassment and/ordiscrimination and protects employees as well as it empowers them toreport and facilitate the reporting. As explained above, the workplaceis a regular site for harassment and/or discrimination. As such, and inaddition to employees 12 who are the victim of harassment and/ordiscrimination, employers 14 (and others running organization of varioustypes) and others associated with the employers or organizations aredeeply affected by actions of the perpetrators of harassment and/ordiscrimination. As such, the victim reporting and notification system 10has been developed with tools providing employers 14 (and others runningorganization of various types) the ability to eliminate harassmentand/or discrimination. By reporting questionable or inappropriateconduct, employees 12 who are the victims of harassment and/ordiscrimination, as well as those associated with the victims, areempowered to help employers 14 monitor and properly addressinappropriate behavior.

As noted above, the victim reporting and notification system 10 ishighly applicable to the workplace and the following descriptiondescribes the victim reporting and notification system 10 in thiscontext. However, and despite the fact the terms “employee(s)” and“employer(s)” are used throughout the present disclosure as a mechanismto fully disclose the victim reporting and notification system 10, thepresent invention is applicable to anyone who is a victim of harassmentand/or discrimination or of other unwanted/undesirablebehaviors/conducts, a witness to harassment and/or discrimination or ofother unwanted/undesirable behaviors/conducts (wherein both victims andwitnesses who report such action are considered “accusers” in accordancewith the present invention), and/or those running organizations wheresuch unlawful and/or inappropriate conduct occurs.

The victim notification system 10 employs a computer-based reportingapplication (“reporting app”) 16 used by an employee 12 via asmartphone, tablet, laptop, or other computer device 18 to safely,easily and (if desired) anonymously report conduct that is believed toconstitute harassment and/or discrimination or that should not happen inthe workplace. The reporting app 16 empowers employees 12 to reportinappropriate and/or unlawful conduct to an independent company and totheir employer 14 to the extent it subscribes to the victim notificationsystem. The reporting app 16 of the victim notification system 10 is apowerful tool provided by an employer 14 to help the employees 12 in itseffort to eliminate workplace harassment and discrimination. By havingemployers 14 adopt the victim notification system 10 and makingreporting so easy, the perpetrators of workplace harassment and/ordiscrimination will be deterred from further conduct. While the presentdisclosure focuses upon the ability of the employee 12 to reportworkplace harassment and/or discrimination, it is appreciated the victimnotification system 10 has been developed so as to allow for witnesses(and other people) to similarly report workplace harassment and/ordiscrimination and/or other behavior and situations.

The victim notification system 10 includes a central operationalfacility 20 operated by a system administrator(s) 22. Users of thevictim notification system 10, whether they be employees 12, employers14, or others working in conjunction with the victim notification system10, communicate with the victim notification system 10 via a globalcommunication network using various computing devices well known tothose skilled in the art. The central operational facility 20 includes acentral server 21 with a central server database 24, a notificationsystem 26, and data analysis system 25 with a scoring system 27 having ascoring system database 27 b. The central operational facility 20 mayalso include other hardware and software based elements that are wellknown for use in the implementation of such a computer basedcommunication network.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, both the central serverdatabase 24 and the scoring system database 27 a store information in anencrypted manner such that the stored information can only be accessedby authorized users, wherein authorization is given by the systemadministrator(s) 22. The data storage is fully encrypted and decrypted“on-the-fly” when read. Access to both the central server database 24and the scoring system database 27 a is done either through HTTPS (SSLencryption) or through an SSH (Secure Shell) access restricted byprivate keys.

It is appreciated the elements of the central operational facility 20need not be found at a single location, but may constitute distributedelements located at various locations and connected via networkconnections in a manner well known to those skilled in the art. Thecentral operational facility 20 is designed to be accessed by employers14, employees 12, the system administrator 22, third-party lawenforcement agencies 28, and other stakeholders desiring to eradicateand address occurrences of the harassment and/or discrimination or otherbehaviors such as for example mass shooting

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, and as will be appreciatedbased upon the following disclosure, the victim notification system 10operates to provide objective assessments of reported behavior. This isachieved by receiving reports regarding harassing, bullying and/ordiscriminatory type behavior, wherein the reports are composed ofstructured data limited to a predetermined list of specific conducts,behaviors, locations, etc. Thereafter, the severity and pervasiveness ofthe harassing or discriminatory behavior is ranked using the previouslymentioned scoring system 27 of the data analysis system 25. The severityand pervasiveness of the reported harassing or discriminatory behavioris then analyzed and recommendations are generated. In accordance withthe recommendations, appropriate action (for example, notifyingemployers, initiating investigations, etc.) is then taken.

The employees 12 access the central operational facility 20, inparticular, the central server database 24, via the reporting app 16.The reporting app 16 is designed to be free to employees 12 and simplydownloaded in a well-known manner. Once the reporting app 16 isdownloaded, the employee 12 registers their device and creates anaccount. Thereafter, the employee 12 may report instances of harassment,discrimination and/or bullying.

In particular, and with reference to FIGS. 2 to 45 , the employee 12first downloads the reporting app 16 to his or her smart phone or othercomputer device 18. As explained above, and as presented in theintroductory screen shots of the reporting app 16) the reporting app 16allows an employee 12 to discreetly and easily report questionable orinappropriate conduct such as harassment, discrimination or bullying. Byreporting questionable, unlawful and/or inappropriate conduct, theemployee 12 is empowered to help their employer 14 monitor and properlyaddress inappropriate behavior. See FIGS. 2A-D.

Once the employee 12 downloads the reporting app 16, and where anemployee 12 is new to the victim notification system 10, he or she isasked to sign up for an account (see FIGS. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7A, and 7D).During the sign up process, the employee 12 is asked to provide thefollowing information: first name, last name, email, birthdate, phonenumber, and is asked to create a password. The employee 12 is also askedto review and approve of the terms of use and the privacy policy.Finally, the employee 12 confirms their email address and cell phonenumber via a confirmation mechanism known to those skilled in the art.

Upon registration each employee 12 is provided a unique token that ishashed and stored in the central server database 24. When an employee 12logs in, the token and sent through the public API 31 so each employee12 can be differentiated. When an employee 12 logs in on the victimnotification system 10, a public API 31 (used by the reporting app 16)allows access to each employee's information, but prevents employeesfrom accessing other user's information.

When it is time to report an incident, the employee 12 simply opens thereporting app 16, logs in (see FIG. 8 ) and swipes the “SWIPE TO REPORT”button 30 (see FIG. 9 ). In addition, and at this point, the employee 12is asked to identify the name of the employer, enter the company emailaddress, and confirm the company email (see FIGS. 10 and 11 ). Throughthe utilization of the victim notification system 10, and as part of theagreement between the employer 14 and the system administrator 22 of thevictim notification system 10, the employer 14 reminds its employeesthat it cannot retaliate against the employee for reporting orcomplaining about harassment and/or discrimination (see FIG. 12 ).Retaliation is unlawful. The employee 12 is made aware of this fact andthat unlawful retaliation can be any of the following: termination,demotion, change in compensation or in salary, change of schedule,change in job duties and responsibilities, and further derogatorycomments. The employee 12 is notified that if they experience any ofthese activities after making a report the actions should be reported toeither the system administrator 22 of the victim notification system 10or to another individual empowered to handle the situation. With regardto gathering employee information, the employee 12 is further requestedto identify whether he/she is reporting on their own or as a witness(see FIG. 13 ), whether he/she is reporting about current or pastbehavior (see FIG. 14 ), the name of the employer (see FIG. 15 ), thename of the last supervisor (see FIG. 16 ), the address of the employerwhere the act took place (see FIG. 17 ), and the name of the humanresource representative (see FIG. 18 ).

The reporting app 16 is developed to make reporting of instances ofharassment, discrimination or bullying (or other behaviors) very simple.In particular, and after the “SWIPE TO REPORT” button 30 is swiped andthe employee has answered the few questions discussed in the aboveparagraph, the employee 12 is provided with a graphical user interfaceshowing four icons that are provided for inputting relevant information(see FIG. 19 ). As mentioned above, a witness may similarly report anincident and the reporting app 16 provides a mechanism to allow for theuser to designate whether the report is being initiated by an employeeor a witness.

Initiation of the reporting process generates an API call via the publicAPI 31 to the central operational facility 20 to generate a blank reportthat includes a report ID, the date of creation for the report, thecompany the person works for, and whether the person is the victim orwitness. The blank report is stored in the in the central serverdatabase 24.

The icons of the reporting app 16 include a “WHAT” icon 32, a “WHERE”icon 34, a “WHEN” icon 36, a “WHO” icon 38 and a “CONTINUE” button 35 a.This allows the employee 12 to provide as much or as little of theinformation as desired by the employee 12. While the description belowpresents the access to prompts and structured inputs in a specificorder, it is appreciated the order may be varied and employees mayaccess the “WHAT” icon 32, “WHERE” icon 34, “WHEN” icon 36, and “WHO”icon 38 in the order they desire.

It is appreciated the questions associated with the “WHAT” icon 32,“WHERE” icon 34, “WHEN” icon 36, and “WHO” icon 38 are customizable bythe employer (or organization using the system) 14. As such, an employeeof a company, for example, when he or she wants to start filling out the“What” questions and taps on the “WHAT” icon 32, generates an API callvia the public API to the central operational facility 20 that queriesquestions that the company has decided it wants to ask its employeesabout “What” happened and then push those questions to the reporting app16 of the user's smartphone 18 or other computer device.

The questions for the various employers or organizations 14 aredetermined through the use of a Join table 24-3 in a relationaldatabase, that is, the central server database 24. As shown in FIG. 1A,one table 24-1 in the central server database 24 contains information ofthe employer 14, such as, company ID, company name, etc. Another table24-2 in the central server database 24 contains all of the possible“What” questions, all of the possible “Who” questions, etc., and eachquestion is assigned an ID. The Join table 24-3 is then used to figureout which questions are assigned to each employer or organization 14.That Join table 24-3 is referenced by the API call in order to displaythe customizable, company-specific inquiries that the employee 12 willsee when he/she clicks on the “WHAT” icon 32, for example.

Each employer or organization 14 using the system is assigned thedefault set of questions (which are described below) to begin. Themajority of employers 14 will use the default set of questions. It isnot an efficient use of space to store the same default set of questionsin full for every single employer 14. The Join table 24-3 allows thedefault set of questions to be stored only once, and then relate thosequestions to the appropriate employer or organization 14 with a morespace efficient Join table 24-3.

Before discussing the default questions for the “WHAT” icon 32, “WHERE”icon 34, “WHEN” icon 36, and “WHO” icon 38, it should be noted that allof the employee's responses to the Who/What/Where/When questions arestored locally on the user's smartphone 18 until each pillar ofquestions (i.e., the Who/What/Where/When questions) is completed. Oncecompleted, the central server database 24 is updated with the responsesin a manner discussed below in more detail.

Upon clicking upon the “WHAT” icon 32, the employee 12 is provided withthe option of identifying the action he or she is reporting (see FIGS.20A-D, 21, 22). The employee proceeds through the various pages ofprompts by click on the Next button 35. Referring to FIG. 20A-D, theemployee 12 may first pick from various inappropriate actions, forexample, including but not limited to, groping, touching, visual, jokes,lewd remarks, inappropriate comments, sexual intercourse, request fordates, inappropriate advances, expression of sexual interest,inappropriate physical contact in public or private places, sharedsexually inappropriate images or videos (pornography) with you orcoworkers, send suggestive letters, notes, emails or texts, displayedinappropriate sexual images or posters in the workplace, toldinappropriate jokes or shared sexual antidotes, made inappropriatesexual gestures, stare in a sexually suggestive of offensive manner,made sexual comments about appearance, clothing, or body parts,inappropriately touched, including pinch, padded, rubbed or purposefullybrushed against you or another person, asked sexual questions such asquestions about someone's sexual history or their sexual orientation, ormade offensive comments about you or someone's sexual orientation orgender. If none of these actions properly describe what has taken place,the employee 12 is provided with an “OTHER” input box for indicatingother actions that have been taken.

Still further, the reporting app 16 will prompt the employee 12 toprovide information as to whether any of the behavior being reported hasanything to do with characteristics of the employee 12 including, butnot limited to, age, ancestry, color, religious creed, marital status,gender, medical condition, mental condition, national origin, militaryand veteran status, genetic information, race, sex, family and medicalleave, sexual orientation, union activity or workers compensation. Ifnone of these properly describe the characteristics applicable to thebehavior, the employee 12 is provided with a box labeled “OTHER” inwhich the information maybe input. See FIG. 21A-B. The reporting appalso allows an employee to report whether the same or similar actionshad been previously reported. See FIG. 22 . Once the employee hasanswered all of the questions in the “WHAT” questionnaire, the “WHAT”box gets updated with a check mark (FIG. 23 ) to indicate to theemployee that the “WHAT” questionnaire has been duly completed. Theemployee 12 may then click the “CONTINUE” button 35 a and continueinputting information.

As mentioned above, and with reference to FIGS. 24, 25, and 26 , theemployee 12 may also provide information as to “WHERE” the actionhappened or occurred. In conjunction with this, the employee 12 isprompted to describe the location “WHERE” the incident or instanceshappened. The employee 12 is then asked to indicate where the behavioroccurred if in the office or out of the office (See FIG. 24 ). If thebehavior occurred in the office, the employee is asked to select whereit happened in the office, for example Bathroom, Break room, Reception,over social media, online, etc. (see FIG. 25 ). If the behavior occurredout of the office the employee is asked to indicate where it happened,for example, in a Uber/Lyft, online, at a party, etc. (see FIG. 26 ).When the final CONTINUE button 35 a is clicked as shown on FIG. 26 , theemployee 12 is returned to the graphical user interface showing fouricons that are provided for inputting relevant information. Once theemployee has answered all of the questions in the “WHERE” questionnaire,the “WHERE” box gets updated with a check mark (FIG. 27 ) to indicate tothe employee that the “WHERE” questionnaire has been duly completed. Theemployee 12 may then click the “CONTINUE” button 35 a and continueinputting information.

Further still, and with reference to FIGS. 28 and 29 , the employee 12is prompted to explain “WHEN” the incident or instances occurred (seeFIG. 28 ). The employee is then asked if the behavior is still ongoing(see FIG. 29 ). When the Next button 35 on the screen of FIG. 29 isclicked on this page, the employee 12 is returned to the graphical userinterface showing four icons that are provided for inputting relevantinformation. Once the employee has answered all of the questions in the“WHEN” questionnaire, the “WHEN” box gets updated with a check mark(FIG. 30 ) to indicate to the employee that the “WHEN” questionnaire hasbeen duly completed. The employee 12 may then click the “CONTINUE”button 35 a and continue inputting information.

Finally, the employee 12 is prompted to provide information regarding“WHO” is the perpetrator of the actions and if there are any witnesses.In providing information identifying the perpetrator, the employee 12 isasked to name the alleged harasser, provide the alleged harassers jobtitle/position, explain whether the employee reports directly/indirectlyto the perpetrator, and identify whether the perpetrator is theemployee's supervisor. If more than one perpetrator was involved or ifthere were witnesses to the incidents that are being reported, theemployee 12 is given the opportunity to identify additional perpetratorsand/or the witnesses. In addition, and as an evidence gatheringmechanism, the employee 12 is provided with the opportunity to identifywhether any witnesses are available. In particular, the reporting app 16asks whether anyone witnessed any of the instances or incidents beingreported. The employee 12 may provide the first and last name of thewitness(es), the cell phone number of the witness(es), and the emailaddress of the witness(es). See FIG. 31-39 . When the Next button 35 isclicked on this page, the employee 12 is returned to the graphical userinterface showing four icons that are provided for inputting relevantinformation. Where all the questions have been answered, the graphicaluser interface is updated with check marks on the various squares (seeFIG. 40 ). At this point the employee click the “CONTINUE” button 35 a.

As mentioned above, while a preferred sequence is disclosed above forthe gathering of information in accordance with the victim notificationsystem 10, it is appreciated that the victim notification system 10allows for the ordering of the data and steps in any which way theemployee 12 reporting wishes. That is, the entry of the information andthe steps taken in conjunction therewith can be switched as desired bythe employee 12. If there are multiple offenders, for example, theemployee 12 can have the ability to specify that there are multipleoffenders at the beginning of the report so that the employee 12 canclarify that different offenders did different things (i.e., the WHATmight be different for different offenders, even if part of the sameincident). Similarly, in the event one reports is intended to covermultiple instances (i.e., the WHEN is more than once), then the employee12 would need the ability to specify the WHAT/WHERE for each suchinstance without having to re-specify the WHO each time and filing adistinct report for each instance.

Finally, and once the report is completed, the employee 12 is directedto upload any evidence he or she may have such as pictures, textmessages, etc. and send the information to the central server database24 which may subsequently be accessed by the employer 14, systemadministrator 22 of the victim notification system 10, or otherstakeholders. See FIG. 40 and “REPORT NOW” button 35 b. However, and aswill be discussed below in more detail, the employee 12 is provided withthe option of either reporting all of the information to the systemadministrator 22 for processing and use in accordance with the fullscope of the victim reporting and notification system 10 (see SUBMITREPORT TO #NOTME™ button 37) or the employee 12 may simply transmit theinformation for recordation and storage by the victim reporting andnotification system 10, with no further action taken and access to theinformation only available to the employee 12 (see NOT READY TO SUBMITYET . . . button 39). See FIGS. 41 and 43 . The transmitted data isultimately timestamped and provided with a report ID. The information ismaintained by the system and may be reviewed by the employee beforereporting. See FIG. 44A-F. By inputting information in this highlystructured manner, the resulting data is readily implemented for thepurposes of the present invention. The information reported ismaintained in a history page of the reporting app 16 that provides asummary of the report including date, instances, incidents, the personreported, status, etc. (see FIG. 45 ). The reporting app includesfunctionality allowing for the ability to send evidence of theinappropriate behavior (for example, text messages, videos, photos,etc.) to the central server via the reporting app.

In practice, and as discussed above, the reporting app 16 collects, andtemporarily stores, the list of steps and questions from the centralserver 21 (that is, “Who,” “What,” “Where,” “When”). As such, thecentral server 21 provides all the questions to the reporting app 16.This means that changing a step or a question will only consist ofchanging it in the central server database 24, without the need ofupdating the reporting app 16. In addition to collecting the list ofsteps and questions, the reporting app 16 also collect, and temporarilystores, the type of answers required. For example, if the questions canonly be answered with predefined answers, the reporting app 16 receivesthese from the central server 21. If it is an open question, theemployee will have to input an answer using the keyboard or other inputmechanism. The “finished” reports will be shown in the employerdashboard report 40 as discussed below in more detail.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, and considering the manysteps involved in the preparation of a report in accordance with thepresent invention, the reporting app 16 transmits the input informationto the central server 21. At the end of every step, the inputinformation is temporarily stored on the central server 21. This allowsthe employee 12 to save the progress made in answering questions andultimately create the report later. During this step-wise process, thereport is maintained in the central server database 24 as “in progress”and is only labeled “finished” upon final submission. This inputinformation, however, is not available to system administrator 22 orother parties associated with the operation of the victim notificationsystem 10, until the employee 12 “presses” the final button (that is,the SUBMIT REPORT TO #NOTME™ button 37) for submission, therebylabelling the report as “finished.” By pressing the SUBMIT REPORT TO#NOTME™ button 37, the employee 12 validates the report and the reportis stored within the central server database 24 for scoring and furtherprocessing as discussed herein. Where the employee merely presses NOTREADY TO SUBMIT YET . . . button 39 the information is merely stored onthe central server database 24. In accordance with a preferredembodiment, the data exchanged between the reporting app 16 and centralserver 21 (via the public API) uses the JSON (JavaScript ObjectNotation) format. It is sent through an HTTPS connection, which preventssecurity breaches.

As mentioned above, the employee 12 has the choice between journalingthe report only (that is, clicking the NOT READY TO SUBMIT YET . . .button 39 and maintaining on the central server database 24 of thevictim reporting and notification system 10 for use only by the employee12) or fully submitting it to the victim notification system 10 (byclicking the SUBMIT REPORT TO #NOTME™ button 37) for full use by thesystem administrator 22, the employer 14, and others who might beparticipating in conjunction with the victim notification system 10. Thevictim reporting and notification system 10 enables employees 12 to keepa journal and document behaviors and instances of harassment and/ordiscrimination without reporting them. Where the employee 12 only wishesto “journal” the report, the reporting app 16 will send the informationto the central server 21 at the end of every step as discussed above.This information will not be disclosed to the system administrator 22until the employee affirmatively directs the system 10 accordingly andit's marked as “submitted,” although the step-wise save information willbe saved to the central server database 24 for access by only theemployee (see, for example, the screen shot of saved reports shown inFIG. 45 ).

In addition to either “journaling” the input information or submittingthe report to the victim notification system 10, the employee 12 mayattached and upload evidence in conjunction with the report. This isachieved by clicking on the UPLOAD EVIDENCE FOR YOUR REPORT button 41(see FIG. 41 ) that leads the user to an interface screen (see FIG. 42 )for completing the uploading process. leads

It is appreciated the steps and questions discussed above, will bemaintained on the central server database 24 of the central server 21.As a result, and as briefly discussed above, if it is desired to changea step or a question, the system administrator(s) 22 of the victimnotification system 10 just has to make such changes in the centralserver database 24, and then the specific step or question will bealtered accordingly. The system will, however, still be able to computethe scores even with “deleted” steps or questions.

The information gathered as a result of the employee reporting app 16and maintained in the central server database 24 is thereafter processedand analyzed in a manner optimizing the goals of the present invention,that is, providing victims with a mechanism whereby one can safely,easily and anonymously (under certain circumstances) report conduct thatis believed to constitute harassment and/or discrimination, as well asproviding individuals and organizations tangentially affected byharassment and/or discrimination to effectively monitor and address suchconduct.

The gathered information is employed by the data analysis system 25 fordata analysis to provide timely information for both employees 12 andemployers and organizations 14 that subscribe to the services offered bythe operators of the victim reporting and notification system 10. Thedata analysis system 25 is remote from the central server 21 for bothsecurity purposes and so as to avoid bottlenecks in storing informationin and querying information from the central server database 24. Inpractice, and as it will be explained below in greater detail, a dataanalysis system 25 issues an API call via a private API 29 to thecentral server 21 to retrieve the next-in-line unscored report. The dataanalysis system 25 parses the report for the name of the allegedharasser and the user (i.e., victim or witness) and the data analysissystem 25 issues an API call via the private API 29 to the centralserver 21 to query the central server database 24 for past reports aboutthe alleged harasser and by the reporting employee 12 from within acertain time period (e.g., within the last three years, or as may becustomized to meet specific needs). The data analysis system 25 performsits analysis and issues an API call to the central server to store itsverdict in the central server database 24.

As previously mentioned, the data analysis system 25 includes thescoring system 27 doing the analysis mentioned above. The scoring system27 provides employers 14 and third-party enforcement agencies, forexample, law enforcement, with a mechanism for assessing the harassingand discriminatory behavior by “severity and pervasiveness.” The scoringsystem 27 objectively assesses both the severity and the pervasivenessof the harassing and discriminatory behavior in order to determine theappropriate action to be taken. In arriving at an objective assessment,the scoring system 27 relies on structured data of pre-determinedoptions (see the various prompts and defined answers provided by thereporting app 16 as explained above), making it easier to compare“apples” to “apples,” rather than allowing open-ended reports that maynot collect all the data required and making it harder to compare onereport to another.

The scoring system 27 takes all of the information generated as a resultof the collected reports and assigns a “severity score.” As explainedabove, the data analysis system 25, and, therefore, the scoring system27, is decentralized from the central server 21, as it is a dataprocessing system on to itself. This means that the data analysis system25 collects all the information generated based upon the reports from aprivate API 29 opening parts of the central server 21 (including dataand functionality) for use by the scoring system. In accordance with thepresent invention, the private API 29 is secured with privateauthentication tokens. As the victim notification system 10 grows, it isanticipated the system will ultimately be composed of a plurality ofnetworked central servers 21 and a plurality of networked scoringsystems 27 so as to help in maintaining a high uptime rate; meaning thatif one of the servers crash, it will not have a major impact on otherservers as these will keep running and collecting data.

The data analysis system 25 collects metrics from the private API 29 foruse for the scoring system 27. When a report is “submitted” inaccordance with the present invention, it is stored in the centralserver database 24. The data analysis system 25 accesses thisinformation via the private API 29, and the scoring system 27 of thedata analysis system 25 calculates and computes the severity andpervasiveness of the conduct, and assigns an objective score regardingboth the severity and the pervasiveness of the behaviors or instancesthat are being reported. The objective scores, as well as intermediatedata generated during the scoring processing, are saved in a databasetable 27 db of the scoring system 27. The central server 21 will, then,be able to access to this data, that is, objective scores, as well asintermediate data generated during the scoring processing, when needed.

The scoring system 27, in generating objective scores, as well asintermediate data generated during the scoring processing, analyzes thereports to extract “key points” (for example, behavior, frequency,person involved, relationship between the victim and alleged harasser(reporting/subordination link for example)). Severity factors areapplied to these points to calculate a score for each report.

For example, when computing reports of a same person about“Inappropriate jokes”:

-   -   the first report will result in a low score because the scoring        system will not find any other identical behaviors,    -   but the second report will have a higher score than the first        one.        Same thing if a person is reported multiple times by different        victims for example.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, actions will be categorizedas Category 3 relating to behaviors or instances occurring either onmultiple occasions over time OR are on their own serious enough;Category 2 relating to behaviors or instances occurring multiple times(behaviors happen between 1 and 3 times) to the same victim OR more thanone victim or witness have complained about the same individual for thesame behaviors OR because it involved a link of subordination betweenthe victim and alleged harasser; Category 1 relating to behavior orinstance which occurs only on one occasion AND only against the samevictim.

It is appreciated that the scoring system 27 is structured to allow forreal-time processing of reports. However, it is appreciated that adowntime of the scoring system 27 may be encountered and contingencieshave been developed to allow for the collection of reports during thedowntime, with subsequent application of the scoring system 27 upon theresumption of the victim notification system 10. This means that whencomputing a report, the scoring system 27 will only take account of whathappened the day of the report or earlier.

As such, the scoring system 27 includes “artificial intelligence” todetect and flag patterns, as well as associate a report from the victimnotification system 10 with an intelligent score, for example, multiplereports by the same alleged harasser, victim targeted by multiplealleged harassers, whether the alleged harasser is a supervisor or not.After querying the past reports from the central server database 24, thedata analysis system 25 parses it to only keep the information needed;the remaining information is discarded by the data analysis system 25,although it will be retained by the central server database 24 in theevent it later becomes relevant. This allows the assignment of scoresdepending on the past behaviors. With this in mind, the scoring system27 is enabled to:

-   -   Detect “fake” reports using Artificial Intelligence. Stance        detection can be performed using the information given by the        victim in the report and the evidence documents uploaded.    -   Detect and flag behaviors occurring multiple times. The scoring        system 27 considers new reports accessed via the private API 29,        keeps the important information (behavior, alleged harasser,        victim . . . ), matches this information with the existing        records (behavior occurrences, number of reports involving the        alleged harasser, number of reports involving the victim), and        sets a score depending on a grading given by the programmer.    -   Constantly update itself with new behaviors so the scoring        system 27 is always able to determine what is a red-flag        behavior, for example. This score will be sent to the private        API 29 for updating of the central server database 24. On the        company's side, the subscriber dashboard will have a colored        light (yellow, orange or red) on each report that will simply        describe the score to the user.    -   Pull notifications from the central server database 24.

With this in mind, it is apparent, the intelligence of the scoringsystem 27 lies in its ability to apply predefined rules in a systematicmanner based upon previous reported behaviors to have a score thatbetter predicts how important a currently report behavior is. Forexample, reports from 6 months ago won't impact the score the same wayas a report from 3 days ago will. This is achieved using mathematicalfunctions only. However it is appreciated Artificial Intelligencetechniques could be implemented in conjunction with the presentinvention. For example, either a Random Forest (an algorithm that takesdecisions based on an automatic voting system, and would perform well inmost cases) or an AdaBoost algorithm (an algorithm that will associateeach behaviors with a factor, and would perform well in solving hardcases) might be effectively implemented in accordance with the presentinvention.

As discussed above, while the generated information is processed by thescoring system 27, the central server database 24 continually maintainsall of the input information allowing for the victim notification system10 to provide a “journaling” functionality allowing the employee 12 tojust keep notes of what happened without actually reporting thebehavior. In that instance, the report would be cached locally (orpotentially on the network) but not analyzed.

As explained above, the information gathered as a result of the employeereporting app 16 is maintained in the central server database 24 thatmay be accessed by the employer 14. In addition, the information may beforwarded to the system administrator 22 or third-part enforcementagencies, or the employer 28 as required in accordance with the victimnotification system or in accordance with the employer's requests 10.Employers 14 wishing to subscribe to the victim notification system 10simply register with the victim notification system 10 and agree tocomply with the underlying rules and requirements. Included with theemployer registration may be information regarding geography andbusiness unit information of the employer 14 which allowsrecommendations to be generated not just for the specific accused butalso for the relevant geography/business unit. In this way, if aparticular department is receiving a number of other otherwise low-levelcomplaints regarding various different people, there may be no actionnecessary for a specific accused, but the department might needtraining, intervention, etc.

As with employee 12 registration, upon registration each employer 14 isprovided a unique token that is hashed and stored in the central serverdatabase 24. When an employer 14 logs in, the token is sent through thepublic API 31 so each employer 14 can be differentiated. The public API31 uses versioning such that each major modification will result into anew API version. This way, employees 12 and employers 14 that haven'tdownloaded a reporting app update (when updates take place) will stillbe able to use it, and those who downloaded the update reporting appwill also be able to use it. This will also allow the systemadministrator 22 to provide different user experience and features, butalso to give new features only to some people, for example.

In situations where the employer 14 is the subscriber to the victimnotification system 10, and as will be discussed below in greaterdetail, the employer 14 is provided with an immediate alert regarding areport of a possible instance(s) of harassment, bullying ordiscrimination. Thereafter, in accordance with a protocol developed andput in place between the system administrator 22 and the employer 14,the legal department and/or the human resource department 42 of thecompany will act in an appropriate manner to remedy the situation. Wherethe employee 12 does not want to contact the human resource department42, the employee 12 may indicate that the system administrator 22 of thevictim notification system 10 direct a system assistant 45 to conduct aninvestigation and works with the employer's human resource department 42to investigate the allegations of the employee 12.

As briefly mentioned above, employers 14 are provided with access to thecentral operational facility 20, for example, and as will be explainedbelow in more detail, employers 14 are provided with a graphical userinterface 47 (displayed on a computer display screen 49 in the form ofvarious interface screens regarding activities (see FIGS. 1 and 46-49 ).It is contemplated employers 14 will subscribe to the victimnotification system 10 and in return are provided various tools based on“data-mining” offered in accordance with the present invention anddiscussed below in greater detail.

Referring to FIG. 46 , the graphical user interface 47 includes adashboard report 40 allows the employer 14 to monitor employeeregistration, identify potential recurrent cases of harassment and/ordiscrimination identify problematic employees 12 who may need trainingor discipline, contact the system administrator 22 of the victimnotification system 10 to disclose potential recurrent harassers and orallow human resource department 42 and/or supervisor 44 appropriatefollow-ups with victims. In accordance with a preferred embodiment thedashboard report 40 present an overview of collected data and links to avast array of information relevant to cases harassment and/ordiscrimination within a company. For example, and with reference to FIG.46 , the dashboard report 40 includes a header identifying the dayssince last report 50, the number of reports 52, the number of complaints54, and the number of accused 56. The dashboard 40 also provides graphs58 that may be of interest.

The graphical user interface 47 is further provided with various screensshowing a listing of reports accessed via the “Reports” button 58 (seeFIGS. 47 and 47 , wherein FIG. 47 shows a listing of reports and FIG. 48shows the details of individual report), a listing of accusedindividuals accessed via the “Accused” button 60 (see FIG. 49 ), alisting of complaints accessed via the “Complaints” button 62, a mapidentifying the location of the reported activities accessed via the“Locations” button 64, and a cumulative graph of reported activitiescategorized by the type of behavior being reported accessed view the“Behavior” buttons 66. It is well appreciated that various windows witha variety of different information may be presented in the dashboardreport 40 depending upon the needs of the employer 14. The variousscreens discussed above include links to additional information that maybe accessed in ways well known to those skilled in the art.

In particular, the dashboard report 40 is linked to all reports filed byemployees 12 at a particular employer (subscriber) 14, a listing of allemployees 12 who have filed reports through the victim notificationsystem 10, and information regarding specific reports (for example, (a)submitted by ______ on ______, 2018; (b) person being reported about; or(c) type of incident/behavior reported). For each report that is beingfiled through the victim notification system 10, the dashboard report 40provides links to: (a) the status of the decision made by company (i.e.,to investigate or not); (b) the status of the investigation (access ofnotes and interview notes, or other documents pertaining to theinvestigation); (c) the name of witnesses and persons interviewed duringinvestigation; (d) the status of the case (pre-litigation, earlyresolution, litigation, mediation, arbitration) until resolution(settlement and amount if any, court decision and amount if any paid);(e) the name of in-house people in charge of report in question; (f) thename of plaintiffs lawyer if employee has retained one; (g) the name ofcounsel and contact information of lawyers/firms representing employerfor that specific report; and (h) tracking information regarding openinvestigations, matters that have been resolved/closed, etc. we will beable to track status of all cases for the employers.

The dashboard report 40 also provides links for accessing reportscategorized by those reports filed by same person/employee. Includedwith such a listing is information regarding all outcomes for allreports filed by same persons and all related data (for example, iflawyers were retained by employees, past resolution/outcome for eachreports, etc.). In addition, the dashboard report 40 provides links toaccess reports categorized by those reports filed about or against samealleged perpetrator, including all related data that can extract throughdata mining. Further, the dashboard report 40 provides links to accessreports categorized by those reports filed regarding the samebehaviors/instances/incidents that are being reported, including allrelated data that can be extracted through data mining. Further still,the dashboard report 40 provides links to access reports categorized byreports filed within same business unit/team or reports filed bygeographic locations. The dashboard report 40 also provides links toinformation regarding trends of behaviors/incidents reported,position/job title of alleged perpetrators, position/job title ofalleged victims, salary of alleged victims and/or perpetrators, anddemographics of victims and/or perpetrators.

In addition to the dashboard report 40, employers are provided withaccess to an employer alerting system 46 of the victim notificationsystem 10. The employer alerting system provides employers 14 withreal-time alerts regarding alleged unlawful and/or inappropriatebehavior reported by employees 12 they believe constitutes harassment ordiscrimination. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, alerts aresent every time a report is filed—if and when—the report necessitates,based on what has been reported, the immediate or not so immediateintervention of the employer so that the employer or other organizationcan investigate, prevent, correct the behaviors reported, protect thevictims, and make sure that the organization complies with its legalobligations. The alerts are sent via push notifications, emails, orphone (calls or text messages), or any other system or means ofcommunication that may exist. This provides employers 14 with areal-time proactive tool to communicate with an employer's workforce,enabling the employer 14 to respond to specific employee questions andsituations, and helps the employer 14 better understand, at any giventime, the pulse of their organization.

In particular, the employer alerting system 46 provides employers 16classified alerts based on their severity and pervasiveness of thereported conduct. As such, the employer alerting system 46 of the victimnotification system 10 is an employer's data analysis system, or radar,that allows employers 14 to act swiftly and efficiently, either throughtheir human resource department 42 or through other tools provided bythe employer alerting system 46 of the victim notification system 10, ifand when allegations of harassment and/or discrimination are reported.

With this in mind, the employer alerting system 46 of the victimnotification system 10 helps employers 14 with early detection of (i)instances of harassment, discrimination and/or bullying and (ii)patterns of harassment, discrimination and/or bullying and/or cumulative“weak” signals (e.g., individual non-severe instances that are recurrentin an employer's workplace). This provides employers 14 with reportingthat can be easily analyzed by experts and the scoring system and usedas a critical aid in any subsequent investigation. As such, employeralerting system 46 of the victim notification system 10 providesvaluable information, data and analysis early on (beforeharassment/discrimination charges (claims and lawsuits) are filed) andhelps employers 14 proactively comply with corporate values, socialresponsibilities and legal obligations.

Ultimately, the employer alerting system 46 of the victim notificationsystem 10 provides employers 14 with information creating a safeworkplace for employees and a zero-tolerance environment for harassmentor discrimination of any sort. As a result, the victim notificationsystem 10 provides a critical early detection tool that restores themissing, but yet so much needed, balance in the workplace by allowingwomen and men to safely, easily and (if desired) anonymously reportconduct that they believe might constitutes harassment ordiscrimination. The victim notification system 10 helps create aneffective collaborative system among employees 12 and their employer 14to protect employees 12 from harassment, discrimination and bullying.Through adoption of the victim notification system 10, employers 14 willbe taking an important step towards eradicating harassment, ordiscrimination or bullying from their workplace.

The victim notification system 10 tracks all of the above informationbecause the information is important and relevant for the employers (ororganization) using the victim notification system 10. For example, itis important for the legal or HR department of an employer to, in acentralized manner, keep track of the status of the reports filed andclaims made against it or against one of its employees. Employers mustknow whether claims/reports settled, what resolution/outcome was reachedetc., so they can, over time, build data that can help maneuver futurereports and perhaps predicts outcomes. Also, it is important for anemployer to be able to track and see if an employee has field multiplereports, to see if there generally is merit in those reports, etc. If anemployee has filed several reports that have concluded in highsettlements, an employer will want to know that information in itsfuture dealings with the employee. Similarly, employers must and shouldknow if multiple reports have been filed against the same perpetrator.For each perpetrator, the employer should know the number of reportsthat have been filed, the types of behaviors/incidents that have beenreported, and any other pertinent information pertaining to thosereports, the perpetrator and victims. This information and data are alsorelevant because they may impact, influence the scoring system. Finally,the system will also be tracking demographic information such as date ofbirth and ethnicities of victims, perpetrators or accused perps andwitnesses (if and when any).

With the foregoing in mind the victim reporting and notification system10 ensures the collection of reported instances of harassment,discrimination and bullying and puts, under certain circumstances, thealleged victim of harassment and/or discrimination in touch with a teamof experts, for example, lawyers, psychologists, etc., to help them dealwith the situation. Further still, the victim notification system 10helps the alleged victims of harassment and/or discrimination work withhuman resources department 20, the system administrator of the victimnotification system 10, or third-part enforcement agencies 28 to remedythe situation. Over time, the victim notification system 10 willeliminate sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying from theworkplace. The victim notification system 10 enables employers 14 to doa better job in monitoring instances of harassment and discrimination.Through the deployment of the victim notification system 10, an employer14 can investigate promptly incidences, nip them in the bud, and use thevictim notification system 10 as one of its defense mechanisms in thecontext of litigation.

While the victim notification system 10 provides a service to employees12, it also provides a service to employer 14 that want to protect theiremployees as indeed by empowering employees and helping them easily andsafely report harassment, discrimination, bullying and other unwantedbehaviors 12, prevent and diminish instances of harassment anddiscrimination, improve monitoring of those instances, boost employeemorale, and improve their legal and strategic arsenals in dealing withharassment and discrimination related litigation. From public arelations standpoint, subscribing to the victim notification systemsends a strong message to a corporation's shareholders, customers,suppliers and employees that the company takes harassment,discrimination and bullying seriously. Ultimately, the victimnotification system 10 will help substantially reduce the cost oflitigation to an employer. Despite sexual harassment and sensitivitytraining, etc., employers 14 still are not able to effectively monitorand handle instances of harassment and discrimination. The victimnotification system 10 remedies this inability and corrects the problem.Businesses face huge legal and reputational risk if they turn a blindeye to serial perpetrators at any level of the organization, butespecially at the top. In today's climate, the wisest business practiceis to proactively ferret out inappropriate behaviors and end themswiftly and decisively.

The present system 10 achieves this through the early detection ofpossible instances of harassment and discrimination and the provision ofan early assessment tool. With this in mind, the victim notificationsystem 10 enables employers to address false reporting and helps filterout meritless complaints and false accusations. It also helps employersidentify people who have a tendency to report every and all work relatedinteractions. The victim notification system 10 also assists withworkplace related investigations, enables employers 14 to monitorsituations, encourages and empowers employees 12 to come forward withoutfear of reprisal and retaliation, enables employers 14 to identifyproblematic managers and employees 12 that need to be kept on a tightleash, enables employers 14 to identify sexual harassers orperpetrators, and enables employers 14 to nip situations in the bud andterminate employees 12 that need to be disciplined/terminated. Stillfurther, the victim notification system identifies vulnerabilities byharnessing both historical and current complaint data. The victimnotification system 10 also helps identify trends by geographiclocation, business unit or job category, and allows employers 14 toestablish and define an employee's approach to investing in respondingto harassment and discrimination complaint. Further, the victimreporting and notification system enables the reporter to connect withlegal representation to further understand their rights and counselorsto deal with the unlawful conduct. Lastly, the system will enable theemployer to determine if the reporter is making unlawful claims based onpast unsubstantiated similar claims.

While the preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it willbe understood that there is no intent to limit the invention by suchdisclosure, but rather, is intended to cover all modifications andalternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of theinvention.

The following is claimed:
 1. An incident notification apparatus,comprising: at least one memory; at least one processor in communicationwith the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured toexecute a plurality of processing instructions stored in the at leastone memory, wherein the at least one processor executes instructions to:obtain, via the at least one processor, a report by an accuser who is avictim or a witness of harassing, bullying and/or discriminating conductby an accused, the report comprising structured data related to theconduct; parse, via the at least one processor, the structured datarelated to the conduct to determine a set of key points regarding theconduct; analyze, via the at least one processor, the determined set ofkey points to categorize the conduct associated with the report as (1)Category 3 relating to behaviors or instances occurring on multipleoccasions over time, (2) Category 2 relating to behavior or instancewhich involved a link of subordination between the victim and theaccused, or (3) Category 1 relating to behavior or instance which occursonly on one occasion; and present, via the at least one processor, adashboard providing access to the report, the report including a coloredlight, wherein the color of the colored light corresponds to thecategory associated with the report.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the structured data related to the conduct comprises acombination of: structured data related to Who is the perpetrator of theharassing, bullying and/or discriminating conduct and comprising answersto Who pillar of questions; structured data related to What theharassing, bullying and/or discriminating conduct is and comprisinganswers to What pillar of questions; structured data related to Wherethe harassing, bullying and/or discriminating conduct occurred andcomprising answers to Where pillar of questions; and/or structured datarelated to When the harassing, bullying and/or discriminating conductoccurred and comprising answers to When pillar of questions.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein the report includes a report identifier, areport timestamp and an employer identifier of the accuser's employer,and wherein each pillar of questions includes employer-specificquestions associated with the employer identifier.
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the set of key points regarding the conduct includes acombination of: behavior, frequency, and/or relationship between thevictim and the accused.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the atleast one processor further executes instructions to: parse, via the atleast one processor, the structured data related to the conduct todetermine the accused and the accuser associated with the report;retrieve, via the at least one processor, previous reports associatedwith the accused and the accuser, the previous reports having reporttimestamps within a specified time period; and wherein the conductassociated with the report is categorized also based on analysis of theretrieved reports.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the specifiedtime period is one of: 3 days, 6 months, 3 years.
 7. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the color of the colored light is one of: yellow,orange, red.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor further executes instructions to: determine, via the at leastone processor, that the conduct associated with the report iscategorized as Category 3 relating to behaviors or instances occurringon multiple occasions over time; and generate, via the at least oneprocessor, a recommended action for the accused to address the conduct.9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the recommended action is trainingor discipline.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor further executes instructions to: determine, via the at leastone processor, that the conduct associated with the report iscategorized as Category 1 relating to behavior or instance which occursonly on one occasion; determine, via the at least one processor, that asecond Category 1 report identifying a second accused is associated withthe accused's department; and generate, via the at least one processor,a recommended action for the accused's department to address theconduct.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor further executes instructions to: categorize, via the at leastone processor, existing reports to determine a set of reports filed bythe accuser; and wherein the dashboard further provides access to otherreports in the set of reports associated with the accuser.
 12. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor furtherexecutes instructions to: categorize, via the at least one processor,existing reports to determine a set of reports filed regarding theaccused; and wherein the dashboard further provides access to otherreports in the set of reports associated with the accused.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor furtherexecutes instructions to: provide, via the at least one processor, areal-time alert to the accused's employer regarding the conductassociated with the report.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein thereal-time alert indicates the category associated with the report. 15.The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the real-time alert is sent via oneof: push notification, email, phone call, text message.
 16. An incidentnotification processor-readable non-transitory physical medium storingprocessor-executable instructions to: obtain, via at least oneprocessor, a report by an accuser who is a victim or a witness ofharassing, bullying and/or discriminating conduct by an accused, thereport comprising structured data related to the conduct; parse, via theat least one processor, the structured data related to the conduct todetermine a set of key points regarding the conduct; analyze, via the atleast one processor, the determined set of key points to categorize theconduct associated with the report as (1) Category 3 relating tobehaviors or instances occurring on multiple occasions over time, (2)Category 2 relating to behavior or instance which involved a link ofsubordination between the victim and the accused, or (3) Category 1relating to behavior or instance which occurs only on one occasion; andpresent, via the at least one processor, a dashboard providing access tothe report, the report including a colored light, wherein the color ofthe colored light corresponds to the category associated with thereport.
 17. A processor-implemented incident notification methodcomprising executing processor-executable instructions to: obtain, viaat least one processor, a report by an accuser who is a victim or awitness of harassing, bullying and/or discriminating conduct by anaccused, the report comprising structured data related to the conduct;parse, via the at least one processor, the structured data related tothe conduct to determine a set of key points regarding the conduct;analyze, via the at least one processor, the determined set of keypoints to categorize the conduct associated with the report as (1)Category 3 relating to behaviors or instances occurring on multipleoccasions over time, (2) Category 2 relating to behavior or instancewhich involved a link of subordination between the victim and theaccused, or (3) Category 1 relating to behavior or instance which occursonly on one occasion; and present, via the at least one processor, adashboard providing access to the report, the report including a coloredlight, wherein the color of the colored light corresponds to thecategory associated with the report.